Mars Joins Forces with USAID, AAK and the Livelihoods Funds to Launch Women in Shea Initiative (WISH)

Mars, Incorporated, together with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID/Ghana), the Livelihoods Funds  and strategic partners AAK and Presbyterian Agriculture Services NGO are announcing the launch of a 10-year program in Northern Ghana to build a sustainable shea supply chain and improve the livelihoods of 13,000 women farmers. The Women in Shea Initiative (WISH) is bringing together a coalition of actors committed at every step of the value chain to build a sustainable sourcing program with more economic opportunities for women shea collectors.

Victoria Mars, Member of the Mars Board of Directors: "We believe that our brands’ success must be aligned with that of our partners and communities. Since 2015, we’ve been taking action with the Livelihoods Funds through the Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming (L3F) to source sustainable vanilla from Madagascar and coconut from Mindanao island, Philippines. We are proud to now come together to launch a large-scale shea sourcing initiative in Ghana to bring benefits to women who live in a particularly fragile ecosystem.”

The partnership is the latest action taken by Mars in its commitment to address the barriers women face in workplaces, sourcing communities and the marketplace. The WISH Initiative is jointly funded by Mars and its strategic partners, the Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming (L3F), AAK (combined $1.7M), and the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Fund through USAID/Ghana ($2M) to support women in shea-sourcing communities through three key pillars:

1. Ensure a high-quality shea production in a context of strong market demand. The project will be implemented by local and experienced NGO Presbyterian Agriculture Services in East Gonja Municipal, in the Savannah Region of Northern Ghana, which falls into the shea belt.
2. Support women beneficiaries to identify, produce crops and create complementary sources of income to provide them with a sustainable income, beyond shea production.
3. Promote the preservation of shea parklands through natural resource management and awareness activities, to ensure the long-term conservation of shea trees within a particularly fragile ecosystem.

As such, the initiative will provide a range of support activities including:

• Providing the tools, trainings, and support necessary to help the women of shea increase the quantity of collected nuts while reducing the burden of shea collection.
• Boost awareness among local communities and practices for the conservation and improved natural resource management to preserve the shea parklands.
• Support women’s farming activities during the dry season, with trainings on sustainable agricultural practices and seedlings to regenerate the soil, increase yields and food security.
• Advisory, support and easier access to financial initiatives such as microfinance services and small credits to help women grow their businesses.
• Strengthened connections to local market actors to build a transparent supply chain with no intermediaries.

After year five, USAID and CARE will exit the project coalition. Mars, L3F and AAK will continue the Initiative with an additional investment of $1.89 million for years six through 10, reaching an additional 2,500 women (bringing the total outreach to 13,000).

This partnership compliments the broader Full Potential platform Mars launched in 2020, as well as the global partnership Mars has built in recent years with CARE focused on empowering people in cocoa sourcing communities. Much of the company’s work on women’s social and economic empowerment in sourcing communities is implemented through the Cocoa for Generations strategy and Protecting Children Action Plan. Mars is also reaching more than 4,500 women through self-help groups in mint sourcing communities in India through the Shubh Mint program and supports more than 800 women rice farmers in Thailand with expanded business skills and training through the Sustainable Rice Platform.

Maribel Narvaez Gallardo, Livelihoods Venture Lead Project & Partnerships: “Our experience has shown it takes strong commitments at every step of the value chain to build the foundations of sustainable sourcing. In Ghana we are bringing together a coalition of private and public actors to address challenges that no actor can solve alone: secure high-quality sourcing to answer our brand partners’ needs, create new economic opportunities for shea women, regenerate a fragile ecosystem of shea trees. This is the largest value chain project we are supporting through L3F as we aim to reach 13,000 women beneficiaries.”

Anne Mette Olesen, AAK’s Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer, added: “WISH is a ground-breaking partnership of stakeholders in the shea industry, combining the knowledge and influence of both the public and private sector. The potential for positive, sustainable transformation is huge, especially in light of the holistic, long-term and practical approach being taken by all parties involved.”

About Mars, Incorporated

For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us.

Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE^®, EXTRA^®, M&M’s^®, MILKY WAY^®, SNICKERS^®, TWIX^®, ORBIT^®, PEDIGREE^®, ROYAL CANIN^®, SKITTLES^®, BEN’S ORIGINAL™, WHISKAS^®, COCOAVIA^®, and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our nutrition, health and services businesses, including AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl^®, Linnaeus, and VCA™.

We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive. 

For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. 

About the Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming (L3F)

L3F is an innovative investment vehicle launched in 2015 together with Mars, Danone and later joined by Firmenich and Veolia, designed to transform the supply chains of pioneering brands while improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. L3F implements timely investment into sustainable agricultural practices, the empowerment of a new generation of farmers and the restoration of key natural resources.

For more information about the Livelihoods Funds and L3F, please visit: https://livelihoods.eu/